Throwing Shadows at Fire

By Emery C. Walters

When the island volcano erupts and buries neighborhoods, life gets very exciting for helicopter tour pilot, Keoni. His home is threatened by rapidly spreading lava, so he’s staying with his lifelong friend Steve. Keoni has never felt any chemistry between them before, but his feelings for Steve change as things turn deadly even in supposedly safe areas.

Keoni carries newsmen, cameramen, officials, politicians, and performs rescues on flight after flight. As his home is destroyed and more neighborhoods crumble, his emotions run high, and his feelings for Steve grow. But he screws things up between them as he leaves for his last flight of the day, maybe of his life. Could things get any worse?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Sep 29, 2018
• ISBN: 9781634867375

Emery C. Walters

Emery C. Walters was born Carol Forde, a name he soon knew didn’t fit the boy he was inside. Transition was unknown back then, so he married and then bore and raised four children. When his youngest child, his gay son, left home, Emery told Carol that she had to step aside, and he fully transitioned from female to male in 2001.

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Throwing Shadows at Fire

By Emery C. Walters

Published by JMS Books LLC

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2018 Emery C. Walters

ISBN 9781634867375

Cover Design: Written Ink Designs | written-ink.com

Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.

All rights reserved.

WARNING: This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.

This book is for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It may contain sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which might be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States of America.

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Throwing Shadows at Fire

By Emery C. Walters

Look at that idiot down there filming the lava! What the hell is he doing? Doesn’t he know how fast it’s moving? Whose house it that, anyway? Oh, shit! Oh, take us up! Lord love a duck, the lava just hit the garage roof!

That was Sam, the newspaper photographer along for the ride. As a helicopter tour pilot, I’d been taken off tours and loaned to the media, with the understanding that it would be the right thing to do, the caring thing to do, and not lose our company, or me as a pilot, any money. So far, so good, and I’d even airlifted three people out of the eruption area, saving their lives and becoming, in their minds at least, a big hero.

Keoni, take us back, said Sam. I have to see if this guy is okay. The readers will want to know. Wait, is that a dog? He’s trying to catch a fucking dog? Well, quote me here, boss, everyone cares about their pets, right, Keoni?

That’s when I tuned Sam out. I was trying to keep the chopper away from the burning rocks the volcano below was tossing at us, the fires that were hitting the trees and telephone poles, not hit anything else, and yet keep us level so his cameras could see what was going on.

I steadied us in the thermals that rose and watched in awe as steam came out of a new vent, closer to the house below. I had taken the residents of this house out just this morning. I thought anyone who stayed this long, cutting it this close, was stupid, but it wasn’t my business to judge. This other guy down there, though, what…ah, I could see it now. He had brought a leash, had put it on the dog, and was jogging with the dog alongside him back to safety. Well, relative safety, but that was all that mattered for right now. He was a runner; I could tell that from up here. Probably did marathons in his spare time. He must have been a tourist or vacationer, though, because I pretty much knew everyone who lived in this small town currently being wiped off the map by our persistent, active, grumbling volcano.

Speaking of grumbling, holy shit: my cameraman was shooting video of the biggest helicopter I’d ever seen, up close anyway, outside of a Vietnam era war movie. I got on the radio. My boss hadn’t told me about this, but I should have kept up better on my own. My bad; but when I make mistakes, I learn from them.

I recognized it as a Super Stallion, probably from the base on Oahu. It looked like it was practicing, and the only reason I could think of for it being here was to evacuate people who got trapped. People like that man down below, who should have left much earlier. But he hadn’t, and he had saved that dog.

Yesterday, a horse had been rescued minutes before the lava took over the barn he was in. Why he was left there, I do not know. People had been leaving in a panic, some forgetting their pets, some unable to take them anywhere, and some because they were unable to find them. The animals were upset, too, and ran off and hid. Maybe that’s what this dog had done.

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We returned